UN Service
Ireland became a member of the United Nations in 1955. Since 1958, the Defence Forces has had a continuous presence on peacekeeping missions, mainly in the Middle East. The Congo was the first large scale involvement that Irish troops had abroad since the foundation of the Irish Free State. The Belgian Congo became an independent Republic on 30 June 1960. Twelve days later, the Congolese government requested military assistance from the United Nations to maintain its territorial integrity. The Irish government consented to a request from the Secretary General for a contingent of Irish troops to serve with the UN Force in the Congo, and so on the 28 July 1960 the Defence Forces involvement in Africa began with the UN mission ONUC (UN Operation in Congo). Six thousand one hundred and ninety one Irish soldiers took part in the mission and twenty six were killed. The largest casualties were sustained on the 8th of November 1960 at Niemba when nine Irish UN peacekeepers were massacred. Irish involvement with the mission ended on 30 June 1964. Each year on the nearest Saturday to the anniversary of the Niemba ambush ONET commemorates the event with a mass and wreath laying ceremony in Cathal Brugha Barracks, Rathmines, Dublin. The general public is invited to attend the event which normally commences with a parade from the main square in Cathal Brugha Barracks at 11.45 to St. Patrick's Church, also in Cathal Brugha Barracks, on the Saturday morning. Normally over 100 ex-servicemen and women take part in the event and dignitaries from the Defence Forces, Department of Defence and politicians from Ireland and abroad also take part in the ceremony.
Every year on Easter Sunday ONET commemorates deceased members of the Irish Defence Forces with a wreath laying ceremony in Arbor Hill, Dublin, where the 1916 Easter Rising burial plot is located. This annual event is called (in Irish) Lá na bhFiann. The event is normally attended by over one hundred ex-servicemen and women who have served their country both at home and abroad on UN service as well as members of the Defence Forces, Government officials, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and members of the general public.
Read more about this topic: Organisation Of National Ex-Servicemen
Famous quotes containing the word service:
“In public buildings set aside for the care and maintenance of the goods of the middle ages, a staff of civil service art attendants praise all the dead, irrelevant scribblings and scrawlings that, at best, have only historical interest for idiots and layabouts.”
—George Grosz (1893–1959)
“This was a great point gained; the archdeacon would certainly not come to morning service at Westminster Abbey, even though he were in London; and here the warden could rest quietly, and, when the time came, duly say his prayers.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)